Schedule-Driven Coordination for Real-Time Traffic Network Control

Real-time optimization of the dynamic flow of vehicle traffic through a network of signalized intersections is an important practical problem. In this paper, the authors take a decentralized, schedule-driven coordination approach to address the challenge of achieving scalable network-wide optimization. To be locally effective, each intersection is controlled independently by an on-line scheduling agent. At each decision point, an agent constructs a schedule that optimizes movement of the observable traffic through the intersection, and uses this schedule to determine the best control action to take over the current look-ahead horizon. Decentralized coordination mechanisms, limited to interaction among direct neighbors to ensure scalability, are then layered on top of these asynchronously operating scheduling agents to promote overall performance.